In the wireless environment where subscriber stations may be located near the edge of the coverage area, co-channel interference from a neighboring base station can limit performance. This issue may be exacerbated by shadow fading, where interposing structures or terrain can block the direct transmission path from a serving base station to a subscriber station. Currently, relay stations may be used to improve transmission quality. These relay stations may be other subscriber stations or scaled down base stations. One issue with this approach is the overhead to allocate resources and maintain the relay links. There are also security issues with this approach.
Thus, there are general needs for apparatus and efficient methods to relay data between a base station and subscriber station. There are also general needs to relay data with reduced overhead and lower transmission power while maintaining security.